Shell starts production at new US alpha olefins unit

LONDON (ICIS)–Shell has started production at its fourth alpha olefins (AO) unit at its Geismar, US, complex, bringing total production of the material at the site to 1.3m tonnes/year, the Anglo-Dutch energy and petrochemicals major said on Monday.

The company began to bring the 425,000 tonne/year unit online in December, and was completed within budget, according to Shell global chemicals vice president Graham van’t Hoff.

The company sources cheap shale-derived ethylene feedstocks from its manufacturing sites in Norco, Louisiana, and Deer Park, Texas.